Search

Black Muslim immigrants are doubly vulnerable right now: they face a military state built to bomb, deport, and detain Muslims—and a police state built to criminalize and kill them. This Black History Month, let’s do better in our defense of immigrants and connect Islamophobia to anti-Blackness.

Last week’s immigration orderbanned citizens of seven Muslim countries from entering the United States. Three of those countries are African. Two are predominantly Black. Members of the African Union blasted the U.S. for “taking many of our people as slaves” but refusing to accept them now as refugees. These are refugees the United States has itself created.

Though violence at our borders is not new, Muslim immigrants have faced heightened violence at airports and immigration checkpoints since Trump’s ban went into effect. On Saturday, a Somali mother and her children were detained for 20 hours without food at Dulles Airport. The Atlanta Black Star reports that immigration officers pressured the woman into signing papers and threatened to deport her without her children if she refused to comply.

What is important to note here is that Black Muslims from Sudan and Somalia and Afro-Arabs from other countries on Trump’s list are doubly vulnerable upon reaching the United States. Not only are they targeted based on their nationality and faith, they face anti-Black racism from a white supremacist state. A report from the Black Alliance for Just Immigration shows that Black immigrants are twice as likely to face deportation due to a criminal conviction compared with immigrants from other regions, and more than three times as likely to be detained while their cases are pending. Black people are subject to heavier policing than other communities, and immigrants are no exception. And Black Muslims face added police threats due to anti-Muslim surveillance programs.

Trump’s Black History Month remarks yesterday aren’t just laughable—they are an ugly reminder of how vulnerable both Black and Muslim lives are in this era. Black Lives Matter released a statement in response to the Muslim Ban, highlighting how xenophobia and Islamophobia work together to harm those who are most vulnerable and emphasizing that the movement for Black lives knows no borders. Black History Month is a good time to finally uplift the experiences of Black Muslim immigrants and collectively fight for each other against a state that profits from our pain and revels in our repression.

Deedra Abboud is a Muslim, feminist activist running for U.S. Senate in the state of Arizona. A former immigration lawyer and a self-proclaimed “civil rights and social justice advocate,” Abboud is the progressive candidate Arizona needs to defeat Arpaio and his brand of racist politics.

In addition to her legal career, Abboud’s community organizing efforts have focused on fostering interfaith dialogue and defending freedom of religion, combatting discrimination against Native Americans in schools, investigating discrimination complaints against law enforcement and the FBI, campaigning for marriage equality, and fighting for access to abortion and birth control and women’s health in general. Recognizing that many young people, women of color, and progressive activists are disenchanted with the political process and eager for a candidate that takes our struggles and ...

Deedra Abboud is a Muslim, feminist activist running for U.S. Senate in the state of Arizona. A former immigration lawyer and a self-proclaimed “civil rights and social justice advocate,” Abboud is the progressive candidate Arizona needs to ...

Yesterday, convicted criminal and former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio announced that he is running for U.S. Senate in the state of Arizona. Just a few months ago, Arpaio was facing a jail sentence for violating a judge’s order to stop racially profiling Latinxs. Trump later pardoned Arpaio, and now the man who called himself the “the toughest [i.e. most racist, violent, evil] sheriff in America” is running for office to “support the agenda and policies of President Donald Trump in his mission to Make America Great Again.”

Recent elections have reminded us that U.S. citizens overwhelmingly elect monsters, which is why we need all hands on deck to defeat Arpaio and his anti-immigrant campaign.

Yesterday, convicted criminal and former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio announced that he is running for U.S. Senate in the state of Arizona. Just a few months ago, Arpaio was facing a jail sentence for violating a judge’s ...

The Broad Room is an all-women political collective in New York City that’s taking down the right-wing agenda and educating the city’s young feminists one newsletter and activist training at a time.

Started in the wake of Trump’s election by three aides to Mayor Bill De Blasio, the group aims to train an army of badass women to resist the right through distribution of a weekly action letter that tackles topics from net neutrality to white supremacist violence, free monthly trainings taught by experts in their field on how to understand and change government, and a host of networking events ...

The Broad Room is an all-women political collective in New York City that’s taking down the right-wing agenda and educating the city’s young feminists one newsletter and activist training at a time.

Search

We need your help!

Get Our Newsletter

New posts and Feministing news delivered to your inbox weekly!

Want to write for us?

All Feministing posts are written by the site’s collective of regular columnists and editors. Though we don’t currently accept guest submissions, we have an open platform Community site to which anyone can contribute. We often promote our favorite Community posts on the main site. And Community bloggers who consistently impress us may to be invited to become regular Feministing columnists..